


A Different Sort of Thursday

by suzanami



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Banter, Bathing/Washing, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 17:03:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1122323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzanami/pseuds/suzanami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Anna insists on giving Kristoff a bath, and it's not even because of how bad he smells (though he does smell pretty bad), and she makes a bit of a mess, and Kristoff smells like lavender for a week.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Different Sort of Thursday

Kristoff always left for work long before dawn, and even longer before Anna would begin to wake up. Anna slept as late as she could get away with, which, on the occasional day, was past when Kristoff returned to town around midday. He'd been at this Ice Master and Deliverer thing for almost a year now, and had been kind of sort of unofficially courting the princess for nearly as long; he had his routine down. Usually he went home after work to a modest house situated not far from the castle's gates (the princess had pulled a few strings to get him a place so quickly with a rent he could afford on his new salary) and, a few days a week, would take a bath and head to the castle's grounds to visit Anna. (Anna occasionally complained that he didn't visit often enough but Elsa reminded her that three or four days a week was an awful lot of times for the Official Arendelle Ice Master and Deliverer to visit the castle, and Anna often went out into town to visit him, besides.)

Today was one of Anna's lazy days. It coincided nicely with one of Kristoff's visiting days, so she slept fully until late morning and spent a couple hours laying in bed, drifting in and out. It was noon by the time she wrenched herself out of bed, but throwing open the window and feeling the spring breeze made it worth it. She took her time getting to lunch; hopefully Kristoff would already be down there, waiting.

But he wasn't there when she arrived, and he didn't show up during, either. It was a few hours past lunch and Anna checked to make sure that she hadn't slept for two days and that today was indeed their scheduled date. She gave instructions to find her in the gardens when and if Mr Bjorgman came around; when she came back inside at dusk, she still hadn't heard any word. She was starting to worry, about to head into town to see if he was home and had just forgotten that it was Thursday. His work was dangerous and she knew it. She didn't spend her days fretting, but things like this made her nervous, dammit. That piled on top of plain old disappointment at not seeing him had her quieter than usual come dinnertime.

She was in the drawing room, trying to distract herself with a dirty novel from the topmost shelves of the library. It was just after dark when Mr Bjorgman was announced and he stepped through the doors that the princess always left hanging open. As her gaze settled on him and she closed the book a bit too hard, her heart fluttered back and forth between relief and annoyance. She stood and dismissed the servant. "How was your day?"

Kristoff walked more clumpily than usual over to the huge plush chair she'd just been occupying, crashing down and groaning. "I've had better. Wrenched my back pretty good this morning."

Anna frowned, leaning over him. He smelled awful but she was so glad to see him that she barely cared. She ran her hand through the tangled blond mop on his head and his eyes fluttered shut at her touch. "This morning? But aren't you just getting back now?"

"I had a whole day of work, Anna."

"With a bad back?"

He rolled his eyes, but they were tired and didn't have their usual spark to them. "Well, yeah. What was I supposed to do? Come home?"

"Yes!"

"No, see, it doesn't work that way."

"That's dumb."

"That's _work_ , Anna." She saw him bite back his next comment just in time, but she could guess why he held it back. Princesses didn't tend to know a lot about working hard every day. Probably wise of him to not bring that up.

Sighing, she knelt in front of him, taking one hand and moving her fingers over his, over the back of it and the palm, pressing and rubbing the stiffness out. They were grimy with sweat and god knew what else, but his posture relaxed as she worked out the stress of the day. "Why're you home so late, though?" She made a point of saying 'home'; he hadn't gone back to his house and he didn't live here at the castle, but she wanted to be his home.

When his eyes softened at her words, she knew he noticed. "Takes a lot longer to get down a huge mountain when you have to stop constantly because your back's on fire."

Anna pressed her lips together and furrowed her brow. "C'mon."

"C'mon where? Can't I just stay here to die?"

"Don't be such a baby. Come with me."

"Anna, if you felt this searing pain, you'd be wailing just like a baby. I nearly am."

"It'll help." She took both his hands in hers, guiding him to standing. "Want me to carry you?"

"Ha, ha."

She smirked. "Just one flight of stairs, I promise."

"You're gonna be the death of me."

"Oh, you always say that. Come on, come on." She led him out of the study and down the endless hallway and up the stairs and down another endless hallway to a familiar set of doors. Her room.

Kristoff hesitated. "I can't really turn my neck right now," he said. "But did anyone see us?"

Anna rolled her eyes as she shouldered open the door. "Like I care."

"You really should care."

"Well, I don't. C'mon now." She tugged him gently through her door, shutting it behind her. She guided him across the room and through the smaller door to her bathroom. "Okay, stinky, strip."

He flushed. "Gimme a break, Anna."

"Don't look at me like that. Here." She leaned in, carefully tugging off his belt and shirts. He winced as he raised his arms and her tone softened. "You really hurt yourself bad, huh?"

"Anna, I wouldn't miss our Thursday if I could help it."

She smiled softly at him then raised onto her toes to peck him lightly on the mouth. "Finish undressing and I'll run you a hot bath. You smell really bad." She ran the water hot and fumbled with the salts that were supposed to be soothing or whatever, promptly spilling half the contents into the water, dropping the bottle and spilling the rest of the salts across floor. "Stop laughing," she said, not turning around.

"I didn't laugh." But there was a restrained choking in Kristoff's voice and when she looked over her shoulder, he was grinning wider than he should be with a back injury. He was also stark naked and Anna realized, suddenly, that she'd never seen him naked in a non-sexual context before. It was strange and oddly comfortable. Intimate in a different way. She liked it. "I'm going to smell like lavender for a week."

"It'll definitely be an improvement. Hop in."

"I can barely walk."

"Then fall in for all I care, just get in the bath."

"You filled it too high." He paused at the edge of the tub.

"I don't think so," she replied, leaning around him. She patted his backside. "What, do you hate baths this much? Get in."

"I hope you have extra towels."

"This _is_ a castle. We have extra everything."

Kristoff crawled into the tub and, as he'd predicted, water spilled over the side. It splashed over Anna's skirt and shoes and she yelped, "Watch it!" as he rolled his eyes. But the tension eased from his face as he slid down in the water, sinking down almost to his ears. She turned and kicked off her shoes and yanked off her stockings and bunched up her skirt and knotted it around her hips, then tossed a few towels on the floor; she moved them around with her foot, making more of a mess than she was cleaning up.

Undeterred, she reached over him to grab the sponge and she worked excessive amounts of soap into it. "Now you'll know the secret of how I always smell so pretty," she said, motioning for him to sit up.  
  
He did, grudgingly, and she sat her hip on the edge of the tub and began scrubbing his back. "I know how you smell pretty. Soaps and perfumes and stuff. It's not a secret. Ow, not so hard."

"Did I hurt your back?"

"You hurt the skin on my back."

"Oh, good good, then."

"Excuse me?"

Anna leaned her weight into her work, scrubbing hard at his back. "This sea sponge is specially harvested because it's so good for scrubbing away old skin. You really need to exfoliate more; you're super gross."

"Dead skin falls off when it's ready."

"Not when you don't remove your shirt for a full week, it doesn't." She threaded her fingers into the hair at the back of his head, gently tipping it forward so she could scrub his neck. "You'll feel a lot better once you're all clean," she said, her voice more gentle. She handed him the sponge and he washed his arms while she cupped water in her hands and rinsed his neck and shoulders and back, her fingers following the streams of water. It was nice, just touching him without any urgent need behind it, just enjoying him. "Is the hot water helping your back?"

"A little. That's not hurting either," he added, referring to how her hands kept skimming down his shoulderblades.

The bath water was starting to cool and Kristoff's fingers were getting pruney when Anna set a folded towel on the edge of the tub and slipped out into her room, back soon with a wad of clothes. "I, uh." She flushed, setting them on the side of the wash basin. "I have pajamas for you."

He winced as he shifted his weight to stand and grab the towel. "I – why?" he said, his voice just loud enough for her to hear over the sound of water sloshing away from his body as he stood. He rubbed his face dry before stepping out of the tub, nearly tripping on the tangled mess of wet towels Anna had left there.

Anna clenched her hands together behind her back and shrugged. "I've kept some around for a while. I mean, you know. Just in case you ever wanted to stay."

A soft light came into his eyes and he smiled as he toweled off. "We both know I can't just stay overnight. It's hard enough sneaking out sometimes."

She grinned and bit her lip. "Worth it, though." She tipped her head to the side, watching him dry off, gleeful that he didn't seem to mind her gawking. "At least let me rub your back?"

He peered at her, obviously trying to decide if she was being coy. "All right," he agreed, tugging on the soft pants. "These are kind of fancy for just jammies."

"Fancy?"

"Never mind."

Anna yanked the plug in the tub and took the night shirt in one hand and Kristoff's wrist in the other, leading him back into her room. She rolled onto the bed, waiting as he gingerly crawled up and flopped onto his stomach, face in the pillows. She threw one leg over his waist and sat on his butt, leaning forward to brush her hands over his back. "Where does it hurt?" she said, and he told her, and she worked her hands and fingers into his back until they ached. She kept working through the straining discomfort, feeling the hard knotted muscle under her hands, trying to loosen it. Finally her hands ached too much to continue, so she leaned forward and rested her forehead between his shoulderblades. "Did that help?"

"Did you even start yet?"

"Of course I did!” she huffed. "My hands probably hurt as much as your back now."

She felt him shaking under her and realized he was laughing, so she sat up again. He rolled over slowly so she could keep her balance over his waist as he laid on his back. He was still chuckling as she straddled him. "It was great, thank you."

"Don't patronize me."

"Hey, you tried. I appreciate that you tried."

She pouted. "Did it help at all?"

Kristoff shifted, wincing. "It doesn't hurt any less, but," and he reached out to find her hands, "I do feel a lot better."

Anna leaned forward, resting her forearms on his chest and curling her hands under his chin. The ends of her braids laid damp against his collar bones. "You smell a lot better, too."

"Nah."  
  
She kissed him lightly, lingering for a moment. "I missed you today."

"Trust me, I'd've rather spent the afternoon with you than crawling my way down a mountain."

She rested her forehead on his chin. They fell into silence, feeling each other breathe for a while. "I want you to stay."

"One or both of us will be in a ton of trouble if someone notices. Are you even thinking about this?"

"Yeah, and I already decided that I don't care. It's not like it's some huge secret that we're intimate. We have some really inconsistent rules around here. They look the other way if we're bumping uglies –"

"Don't – don't call it that. Where did you even learn that?"

"… but if you just sleep in my bed til the next morning, it's some awful scandal."

"I don't much care for these dumb castley rules, either."

"You get used to them. In any case," she said, settling against his chest again, "it's been too long since we had a good scandal. So."

He laughed, soft and low, weaving his hands into her hair and pulling her back up for a long kiss. "You do know I just want to go to sleep, right?"

"Sleeping is all I had in mind."

"Good, because I'm already halfway there." His voice was getting thicker, his words just starting to slur around the edges, and Anna smiled, rolling off him to unbraid her hair and change into her nightgown.

This was better than the usual stuffy things they did around the castle when he visited during the afternoon; it was even better than exchanging heated kisses in dim corridors when no one was (probably) around. It made Anna's core warm in a different way, this different sort of intimacy. She loved it, she thought as she curled up against his side and draped her arm over his middle and hooked her knee around his leg. Kristoff's breathing was slow and even, and she resolved to not let him leave for work in the morning, even if that meant herself getting up before dawn.


End file.
